can a company who hired me use my accounts still after my contract ended?

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New Member

I was hired as affiliate manager for about 6 months and have done my job quite well. I've created more than 8 reputable forum accounts for them to establish connections for the existing and potential clients. Recently I noticed one of the account was posting on the forum, can they actually do this? I believe they've hired someone new.

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Member

The specifics would depend on your contract but, at a guess, yes. The account was created for them while they were paying you, so would be seen as a product of the job. In situations like this, the company expects to keep the accounts for future use, or there is little point in creating them. Check your contract.

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Community Leader

Community Leader

I was hired as affiliate manager for about 6 months and have done my job quite well. I've created more than 8 reputable forum accounts for them to establish connections for the existing and potential clients. Recently I noticed one of the account was posting on the forum, can they actually do this? I believe they've hired someone new.

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I agree with Spike. As you yourself said, these accounts were established "for them to establish connections for...clients". Theseaccounts wre established by a company representative for company benefit. They therefore belong to the company, not you. Any posts were made, or should have been made, as if the company was making them. For this reason, the username on these accounts, and the profile, should be related to the company, not you.
As a comparison, after I had been a member of Business Advice Forum for some time, I became the moderator for what is now the "Sales, Marketing, Online Promotion & SEO" forum. I joined because I am a independent sales consultant for a website marketing firm, and I thought I could increase my visibility, and my reputation, by helping members with SEO related matters. In my case, however, the firm was not involved in any way with my membership in the forum, and would not directly benefit from that membership. Therefore, they cannot use my membership for any purpose. In your case, the accounts were specifically created for the company's benefit, so they own them, and can do anything they want with them.

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Member

The specifics would depend on your contract but, at a guess, yes. The account was created for them while they were paying you, so would be seen as a product of the job. In situations like this, the company expects to keep the accounts for future use, or there is little point in creating them. Check your contract.

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I agree to this. You were hired to do the job, and presumably had been properly paid for it. So what you had done when you were in that company would belong to them until now. If I were you, I would just move on and treat the usage of those accounts as a compliment for a job well done. What's insulting was when they had deleted all the things you had done when you left them. This is a good lesson for employees not to be selfish.

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New Member

Thanks for the info. Should I at least request to remove my pictures on my profiles?
I do have avatar and the names of these accounts are my real name, can I request them to pay the forum admin to change the names of these accounts to thier new rep?

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Member

I think that is not part of the contract to use your personal details in perpetuity that is not fair. However if that is stipulated in your contract I am assuming you were paid with a reasonable huge sum of money. What if that account of yours was used to misrepresent or to cheat the customers?

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New Member

I think that is not part of the contract to use your personal details in perpetuity that is not fair. However if that is stipulated in your contract I am assuming you were paid with a reasonable huge sum of money. What if that account of yours was used to misrepresent or to cheat the customers?

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Not really huge though. but exactly what I’m afraid of.

I assume they won't use the accounts as they didn't use the accounts of their previous representative but I can see the skype account I created for this project is very much active. I can see it because I added it to my personal skype account back then. The list of contacts on that skype account somehow knew me personally as I tried to use those to chat prospects in my area.

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Community Leader

Community Leader

Thanks for the info. Should I at least request to remove my pictures on my profiles?
I do have avatar and the names of these accounts are my real name, can I request them to pay the forum admin to change the names of these accounts to their new rep?

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As I mentioned in my previous post, these accounts were for company use, so you should not have used your personal information for them. You can ask the to change the name and pictures on the accounts, and they can then contact the forum admins to find out how to do this. Don't offer to pay to have this done, as there should not be a cost for this. Let them contact you if they need to pay the forum admin for the changes - if there are costs within the company, for example, the salary of the person contacting the various forums, that is the company's responsibility, not yours.
A far as the skype account, mentioned in the post after the one quoted above, can't you remove the business related contacts from your contacts within skype? If not, can you contact skype and find out how to separate the accounts?

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Member

I was hired as affiliate manager for about 6 months and have done my job quite well. I've created more than 8 reputable forum accounts for them to establish connections for the existing and potential clients. Recently I noticed one of the account was posting on the forum, can they actually do this? I believe they've hired someone new.

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If you made it for them they will most likely keep using them. Unless these are your social media accounts or something, they probably can get away with this. If you have administrative control over the accounts you can deny them access to the forum if you want to. You could charge them to use your forum. Unless you have a contract with them you can charge them to use your forum. I personally wouldn't care.

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Member

I assume they won't use the accounts as they didn't use the accounts of their previous representative but I can see the skype account I created for this project is very much active. I can see it because I added it to my personal skype account back then. The list of contacts on that skype account somehow knew me personally as I tried to use those to chat prospects in my area.

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I see, that might be the reason why they would not let go of your legacy. They do not want to lose the contacts you made when you were still with them. I can understand that on the business side of the matter but they should make some effort to let their customer or contacts know that you are no longer with them and should provide a new means to communicate. Why not talk to them and tell about this issue for your own good?

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Member

Yes, most likely the accounts do belong to the company. This should be stated within the terms of your contract, and the accounts should not contain your personal name or likeness. I would liken this to a database you created within the scope of your employment, for the benefit and use of the company. You would not take that database with you upon leaving, and as with that or another product, whether virtual or tangible, it belongs to the company.

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